Ministry of Kultur

These globe-trotting Seattlites pile up menacing tar-pit riffage for a bash that's equal parts System of a Down, Gogol Bordello and Rachid Taha, with maybe some Sepultura in the percussion. But give or take the dirge-turned-jig-metal "Sheitan" and the martial "Revolutionary Song Intro," tempos stay Eastern-European-wedding upbeat, often stampeding against the free-jazz sax skronk as vocal pitches switch deftly between high-wailing emotion and low-chanted slapstick about a self-medicated nation, a rich man's war, the falling sky and an antisocial coal-mine woman who can kick your butt.